A FORMER teacher from Britain has become an overnight international literary sensation, topping the US bestseller lists with her debut novel.

Diane Setterfield's first book, The Thirteenth Tale, is No1 on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly charts, just a week after publication.

The 42-year-old from Harrogate, Yorks, was taken on by the first agent she sent her manuscript to, winning a publishing deal from Orion worth a reported £800,000, plus a US deal for more than a million dollars (£530,000).

She spent five years on the book while working as a private tutor in French.

Major US bookshop chain Barnes and Noble called it "an urgently readable novel... nearly impossible to put down".